CTA Refutes China’s findings on Tibet’s Mining Disaster

The environmental researchers of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) based in Dharamsala, India, refute reports in the China’s official media outlets stating that natural causes triggered the recent landslide at a copper and gold mine near in Tibet’s capital Lhasa which killed at least 83 miners. The Environment and Development Desk of CTA has released a 16-page report titled “Assessment Report of the Recent Devastating Landslide in Gyama Valley: It’s Possible Cause and Impacts”, detailing the actual causes of the mining disaster and its collateral issues.

“In order to acquire maximum profit in the shortest period possible, mining in Gyama has been pursued aggressively. Whole swaths of land have been excavated in several sites and in some cases the whole face of a mountain has been ripped in the process of exploration, water diversion, mining and road construction. It was just a matter of time that such a large scale and aggressive expansion out of the mine was going to cause a big disaster,” the report reads. [View full report]